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Blue paper sleeve with circular window at centre

Object information

Physical description

Blue paper sleeve with circular window at centre with text "This is a / Columbia / New / Process / Record / The Only records Without Scratch". Framed areas of text on "Columbia Needles" and "Columbia New Process Records" with distributor's contact details obscured by a white paper slip divided vertically at centre with notes in ink at top 'THE FOURTH FORM AT ST. MICHAEL'S / PT1 PT2' and stamp '20 FEB 1935' in top right corner. Reverse features text "The New Viva-tonal Columbia" with illustrations of four gramophone cabinet models, including a portable.

Statement of significance

The Rev. J.W. Schomberg Collection consists of a home-made gramophone, four boxes of gramophone needles and thirty-five records, all dating from the early 1930s. The gramophone's cabinet was constructed by Junius Schomberg, from silky oak wood, in imitation of those available through retailers in the early 1930s. What is most unusual about this gramophone is that Schomberg has used a giant whelk shell as an amplifier, hidden within the cabinet.

Between August 1921 and his sudden death on 5 February 1936 at the age of forty-five, Junius was superintendent of the Mission for Pacific Islands and based at the Torres Strait mission of St Paul's on Moa Island. The collection's significance lies in its close association with the Schomberg family's time on Moa. The collection demonstrates Junius's resourcefulness and adaptability and the broader cultural life of a missionary at this time.